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Democrats to introduce bill to expand Supreme Court from 9 to 13 justices – Rarely has a single word created so much buzz as the recent revival of “court-packing.” It refers to the notion of expanding the size of the Supreme Court so that its composition, and its decisions on key issues, will quickly change. There is no valid reason to expand the Supreme Court, and this invalid one has been rejected before — court-packing would destroy the independence of the judicial branch. The ordinary course of attrition-and-appointment can have a big impact. “Court-packing” is different. The Supreme Court has had nine justices since 1869. Today, it hears half as many arguments, and decides half as many cases, as it did in the 1980s. There is no capacity problem. Those who urge expanding the size of the Supreme Court seek not to increase its capacity but to change its output: they want to alter the actual decisions the court makes. Heritage experts: Tom Jipping and John Malcolm

How Biden Administration Redefines Words, Reshapes Facts to Serve Its Purpose – Another word Biden has bent to serve his purpose is “infrastructure,” which has up to now been understood to mean projects like roads, bridges, railways, airports, and seaports. In Biden’s infrastructure proposal, however, spending on those priorities accounts for only 7% of the $2.2 trillion price tag. Funding for home care workers is included, as is $50 billion for the National Science Foundation to create something called a “technology directorate.” There are also subsidies for electric vehicles and for charging stations. Those are issues Congress can certainly debate and approve on any given day, but they are not infrastructure. Another way Biden plays with language and facts is in setting milestones for himself that are already inevitable or easily achievable. He called his goal to administer 100 million coronavirus vaccine doses in 100 days “ambitious,” and imagined widespread press skepticism where there was virtually none. The truth is, the U.S. was already on pace to meet the mark when Biden took office. Heritage expert: Tim Murtaugh

Senate Democrats play hide the ball with new hate crime bill – People are weary of COVID-19 and are seeking real relief. But they won’t find it in S.937. The public is also looking for the unity it was promised by this administration. They won’t find that in S.937, either. Instead, all the bill delivers is a dose of highly divisive sexual politics in a duplicative legislative proposal. All it would accomplish is the appointment of yet another bureaucrat to review functions — further slowing the gears of government. The real question isn’t, “Why don’t any Republicans support this bill?” It’s, “Why do any Democrats support it?” Heritage expert: Sarah Perry

Biden Administration Moves To Undo Trump Abortion Rules For Title X – Abortion is not health care. Abortion is not family planning. And the Title X program was never meant to be a funding stream for abortion providers to conduct Title X activity in one exam room while performing abortions in another room down the hall. The Trump administration regulation drew a clear, bright line between federally funded Title X programs and abortion. The Biden administration’s proposed regulation turns this principle on its head by mandating abortion referrals and allowing Title X activity to take place alongside abortion-related activity. Heritage expert: Melanie Israel

Meet Kimberly Gardner, the Rogue Prosecutor Whose Policies Are Wreaking Havoc in St. Louis – An investigation by a local television station “showed that in 2018, prosecutors got guilty verdicts in just 51% of cases. In 2019, the trial conviction rate was 54%.” Gardner’s office loses almost half the cases it takes to trial. According to the news station, “historical data … showed the Circuit Attorney’s Office used to achieve guilty verdicts in approximately 72% of trials, on average.” But it’s no wonder the conviction rate has plummeted so dramatically under Gardner’s watch. During her tenure, there has been more than 100% turnover in the prosecutor’s office. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the effect “is a state of dysfunction, low morale and dearth of legal wisdom necessary to safeguard the public from potentially dangerous criminals.” Heritage experts: Zack Smith and Cully Stimson

These 11 Incidents Underscore Outrage of Biden’s Slap in Face to Gun Owners – Everyone wants Americans to be safe from violent crime. The good news is that despite last year’s spike in homicide rates, Americans today remain significantly safer from gun crime and gun homicide than they were in the early 1990s. This is true even though the number of privately owned guns per capita has skyrocketed and many states have loosened restrictions on the ability of law-abiding citizens to carry firearms in public. Biden’s gun control orders will do little to keep violent crime rates down. But his orders do show a contempt for the Second Amendment rights of responsible gun owners, including those who bought guns for the first time in 2020 because they felt the government could not or would not be there to protect them. Heritage expert: Amy Swearer